62: Lucy Letby: UNHINGED 29-Year-Old Nurse & Baby Serial Killer
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Today's episode of Serialistly is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Now, most of you listening right now are probably multitasking. Yes, I know you are. While you're listening to me talk, you're probably also driving, cleaning, exercising, or maybe even grocery shopping. But if you are not in some kind of moving vehicle, there is something else you can be doing right now, getting an auto quote from Progressive Insurance.

It's easy and you could save money by doing it right from your phone. Drivers who save by switching to Progressive save nearly $750 on average. And auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts. Discounts for having multiple vehicles on your policy, being a homeowner, and more. So just like your favorite podcast, Progressive will be with you 24-7, 365 days a year, so you're protected no matter what.

Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates. National average 12-month savings of $744 by new customers surveyed who saved with Progressive between June 2022 and May 2023. Potential savings will vary. Discounts not available in all states and situations. Hey, True Crime Besties. Welcome back to an all-new episode of Serialistly.

Hey everybody, welcome back to an all-new episode of Serialistly with me, Annie Elise. You are going to be with me for a while today, guys. It is a long one and it is going to be a long time. So I hope you're comfy, whatever you're doing, whether you are watching the YouTube video version of this or whether you are on a long commute to work, I hope you are getting comfy. You put that seat warmer on if you've got it and you're

Get ready because you're going to be with me for a while today, guys. Before we jump into today's deep dive episode, please take a quick second, do all of the podcast things, like the podcast, rate it. At the end of this, if you enjoyed the episode, please leave a review. Also, let me know your thoughts about this case in the review because it's going to be one that I imagine you are going to have a lot of emotions about.

In today's episode, we're talking about a case that has been grabbing global headlines for several years now. And I have to be honest, at first, I was really hesitant to touch this case for several reasons.

For one, the trial was longer than almost any trial or case that I have ever covered before. It was roughly 10 months long, and it wasn't broadcasted or covered in the same way as many trials in the U.S. And not only that, but it revolved around a legal system and a set of laws that I'm not entirely familiar with.

So I kind of felt intimidated by it. Like, how can I possibly go through that much information and get everything right here? How can I make sure that I am not leaving anything out if I cover this story? Because I want to cover it accurately and with the correct level of detail.

But also one of the biggest reasons, I'll be honest, that I steered clear of this case was because of its dark and disturbing and sad nature. The victims involved are, without a doubt, among the most defenseless and helpless of any kind of case that I've ever heard of.

literally innocent babies. The details of this case left me reeling, struggling to comprehend how anyone could possibly do this and why. A lot of you wanted to know my take on this case, and this was probably one of the most requested cases that I have ever done to date.

And deep down, as much as I was hesitant and reluctant to do it, I knew in my heart that I had to cover this. It's important to share and listen to these stories, no matter how harrowing they are. The experiences of the victims warrant our attention and our recognition. And after what they went through, the least that I can do is tell their story in hopes of bringing more awareness.

Although there was no doubt a clear perpetrator, it's also clear that some of the hospital policies and a lack of urgency by organizations responsible for responding to those policies to begin an investigation were missed, which likely cost many lives that could have been saved. And we will get into more of that later on. Do not worry.

So as you can imagine, it took a long time, several weeks actually, to thoroughly investigate all of the facts and get the information to you just like I do in every other case. So with all of that, if you haven't guessed,

In today's episode, we are going to go over the person who has been dubbed the most prolific serial killer of children in modern British history, Lucy Letby. So guys, let's get into it. Breaking news in the trial of Lucy Letby. She is the neonatal nurse who was accused of killing seven babies while she was working in the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital. She was a nurse trusted to care.

who chose to kill. Everything about Lucy Letby seemed normal, but that's exactly what she used to cover the truth that she's a murderer.

Lucy Letby was born on January 4th, 1990 in Hereford, England, located near the border of Wales. Hereford is a small town within Herefordshire County that has a population of around 53,000 people.

Hereford has a rich cultural history dating back as far as sometime between 676 and 688 AD. However, nowadays it's most known for Hereford cattle because as the name suggests, it is the origin of what is now one of the most popular types of cattle used in food production throughout the world. Lucy's father, John Lepi, who is now 77 years old, was a successful furniture retailer

while her mother Susan, let be now 63 years old, worked as an accountant's clerk. Lucy's early life seemed to follow a typical path. After graduating high school, Lucy attended the University of Chester, specializing in nursing.

While in college, Lucy's friends described her as kind of awkward and geeky, yet kind-hearted and softly spoken. People who knew Lucy while growing up weren't surprised that she wanted to specialize in nursing, as this was something that she always talked about wanting to do for her career. According to the BBC, one friend in particular who had known her since they were in secondary school

said, and I quote, she had a very difficult birth herself and was so very grateful for being alive to the nurses who would have helped save her life. So while attending the University of Chester and getting deeper into nursing, Lucy had the opportunity to get hands-on experience at Liverpool Women's Hospital and also the Countess of Chester Hospital as a student nurse.

As I mentioned earlier, she grew up in a quiet, sleepy cattle town in the English countryside and seemed to have an overall normal childhood as well. There was nothing crazy or out of the ordinary that ever happened to her, and she had a very loving relationship with both of her parents as well. Lucy's parents were always proud of her. She was the first person in her family to even go to college, and her parents were especially excited about her future.

Lucy had always seemed like someone who was driven, who knew the path that she wanted to go down, and never had any trouble achieving any of her goals. So after graduating college, Lucy started working in the baby ward at the Countess of Chester Hospital in the fall of 2011. She was a great nurse, and by all accounts, she took her role very seriously.

Lucy was featured in the newspaper Chester Standard several times as part of the newspaper's support for the Baby Grow appeal, which was created to raise £3 million to build a new neonatal unit. In this staff profile feature, she was asked and answered a few questions about her job.

saying, and I quote, "I qualified as a children's nurse from the University of Chester in 2011 and have been working on the unit since graduating. I also worked on the unit as a student nurse during my three years of training. My role involves caring for a wide range of babies, all requiring various levels of support.

Some are here for a few days, others for many months, and I enjoy seeing them progress and supporting their families. I am currently undergoing extra training in order to develop and enhance my knowledge and skills within the intensive care area and have recently completed a placement at Liverpool Women's Hospital." At the end of this, she said, "I hope that the new unit will provide a greater degree of privacy and space for parents and siblings."

In Lucy's free time, she was said to have enjoyed holidays in Ibiza, sipping Prosecco and vodka with friends to celebrate a win at the Grand National, and she also took salsa classes with her colleagues, which filled her social calendar. Fast forward a few years later, and it's now 2015, and thanks to her extensive training and qualifications, Lucy began to work with newborns who needed intensive care in the neonatal unit.

Whether from being born premature, breathing problems, or any health conditions, this is where those babies went at the Countess of Chester Hospital. This meant that Lucy would be able to be with the babies who were in the most critical care and her role had a wide range of responsibilities. Before 2015, the number of babies dying at the Countess of Chester Hospital was statistically in line with other hospitals in the UK.

But this was when the real Lucy began to emerge, and where this story begins to take a dark turn. Because everything I just told you about Lucy will seem like nothing more than a delusional puff piece about a seriously deranged and sick individual.

Once Lucy started working in the neonatal unit, seemingly out of nowhere, there was a spike in the number of babies facing life-threatening situations, and more babies were dying.

The number of infant deaths at Countess of Chester started to drastically increase compared to their own historical data and to the nearby hospitals as well. And the thing was, all of the babies were seeming to get better before they got worse. So nobody had any idea why this was happening. Additionally, many of the babies had somewhat similar symptoms, but still there was no obvious reason why the babies all of a sudden passed away.

According to experts, all of the infant deaths could not be explained by medical reasons alone, and the one common denominator was that Lucy was always the one nurse who happened to be there just before a baby died, or they were in her care at that very moment. The majority of the babies who died were siblings, were twins, or were part of a set of triplets.

Doctors and other hospital staff were very disturbed, and some were just flat out puzzled by this alarming increase in newborn deaths. What on earth could be causing this? Or better yet, who? They didn't know what to make of this, and it took a while for an investigation to begin, which we will also get to. But eventually, the finger was pointed at Lucy.

She was first arrested in July of 2018, and then again in June of 2019 and November of 2020, when she was charged with murdering seven babies and attempting to kill another ten babies, all between June of 2015 and July of 2016. Lucy pled not guilty to all charges.

So now let's get into what exactly happened during her trial and what the prosecution believed Lucy did as well as what Lucy's explanation was for all of these instances. Throughout the case and the trial, each baby victim was given a letter to represent their identities. According to The Guardian, parents of all of the children provided witness statements to the court explaining why they wanted their families to remain anonymous.

Some wanted the restrictions not just to ban the publication of their names and addresses, but also the details of their jobs, their ethnicities or nationalities, their medical conditions, and the circumstances of their children's conception, gestation, and births.

Media organizations agreed that it would be better not to name any of the children involved in the case, so each baby was allocated a letter from A to Q to protect their identities. They were named chronologically, and this was also the case for some nurses and doctors who wanted their identities to remain anonymous as well, including a doctor that Lucy supposedly had a crush on.

Today's episode of Serialistly is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Now, most of you listening right now are probably multitasking. Yes, I know you are. While you're listening to me talk, you're probably also driving, cleaning, exercising, or maybe even grocery shopping. But if you are not in some kind of moving vehicle, there is something else you can be doing right now, getting an auto quote from Progressive Insurance.

It's easy and you could save money by doing it right from your phone. Drivers who save by switching to Progressive save nearly $750 on average. And auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts. Discounts for having multiple vehicles on your policy, being a homeowner, and more. So just like your favorite podcast, Progressive will be with you 24-7, 365 days a year, so you're protected no matter what.

Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates. National average 12-month savings of $744 by new customers surveyed who saved with Progressive between June 2022 and May 2023. Potential savings will vary. Discounts not available in all states and situations.

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paid for by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Lucy's trial began on August 22, 2022. The prosecution told the jury that all of these tragedies weren't just bad luck. They believed Lucy was behind all of this.

So what happened? And why was a seemingly normal 29-year-old at the time that she was charged, this female nurse being accused of the murders of so many newborn babies and also the attempted murder of several others? What exactly did she do?

Now, before going forward, I want to warn you that this may be very disturbing. So please take a break if you need to do so. Thank you to all of you for understanding. While ad breaks aren't exactly what we want to hear in some of these cases, it is what allows us to keep this podcast free. So let's hear from our first sponsor of today, and then we will get into what went down with Lucy and all of these babies.

Okay, so let's go in to Baby A. On June 8th, 2015, Baby A, a baby boy, was one of a pair of twins born just a minute apart. He came into the world via a C-section and was immediately taken to the intensive care unit because the twins were born at just 31 weeks. Initially, he was doing well. Even on the next day, he was breathing without any additional oxygen and was fed breast milk throughout the day.

Lucy began her shift at 7:30 p.m., taking over the care of Baby A from the day nurse. At 8:26 p.m., shortly after she assumed care, she called for a doctor due to an odd discoloration on the baby's skin. Despite the efforts to resuscitate him, Baby A passed away within an hour and a half of Lucy coming on duty. Poor little Baby A was placed on a hot cot

which in addition to helping regulate newborns' body temperature while in the neonatal unit, is also used to keep babies warm so they have a little bit of time with their family after they pass away. Later on, Lucy was the nurse who gave Baby A to his mother to hold him for the very first time. Now get this: after Lucy's shift ended, after Baby A died, she searched on Facebook for his mother.

Investigators were able to trace this digital footprint and when confronted about this, Lucy never denied this, just said that she couldn't remember why she did that. She also said that she was the person who administered fluid to baby A when first arriving after her shift started, and she thought that something in the fluid must have caused that problem. And she even noted this bag saying, "Hey, whatever is in this bag needs to be checked out."

Unfortunately for Lucy, no records were produced that cooperated her version of events in any way other than that initial administration of the fluids. So how did this happen?

While during Lucy's trial, two medical experts testified and discussed their findings. As reported by the BBC, medical experts say that the key symptom of air injection is a rapid and inexplicable collapse that does not respond to treatment, accompanied by the appearance of an unusual skin rash. In the case of baby A, several medics noted patches of pink over blue skin that seemed to appear and disappear.

In a post-mortem x-ray, there was a little line of gas in front of the spine, something that was described as unusual by pediatric radiologist Dr. Owen Arthurs. He told Jers its appearance was consistent with, but not diagnostic, of air having been administered.

When asked if he had ever seen anything like this before, he had on another baby that he examined during the course of this entire investigation that was also in Lucy's care. A pathologist who reviewed the case, Dr. Andreas Marninides, said that it would be reasonable to conclude that the air in baby A's circulation was most likely caused by the administration of air through one of the tubes connected to the baby.

Additionally, the pattern of changing skin color became known to be a telltale sign in some of the instances where Lucy had intentionally injected air into a child's circulatory system. So basically, for no apparent medical reason whatsoever,

prosecutors believed that Lucy injected air into a premature baby boy's bloodstream on the day that he was born while already in critical condition. Now, the reason I'm saying that the prosecution believed in this way is because that's the way that they described it throughout the trial.

They don't have Lucy on camera doing this necessarily, but medical experts agree that the only way that Baby A would have died is if someone injected air into him.

And if you can even believe it, it actually gets much worse. Apparently, while baby A's vitals were crashing and the parents were rushed in to sit right outside of the tiny incubator of their newborn who they never even got a chance to hold, a nurse, Lucy, came up to them and asked the parents if they were religious and if they wanted to say a prayer.

As in, there's nothing we can do. Your baby is gone while baby A was actually still alive. One day after baby A died, Lucy sent text messages to her colleagues saying the following: "It was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. Just a big shock for us all. Hard coming in tonight and seeing the parents." Signed, Kisses. She also messaged a nurse to say she has asked to be assigned to work with another baby.

saying, and I quote, "I just don't know how I'm going to feel seeing the parents. Dad was on the floor crying, saying please don't take our baby away when I took him to the mortuary. It's just heartbreaking." Now let's talk about Baby B. Baby B, the twin sister of Baby A, also fell under Lucy's care.

Born in need of some initial resuscitation, baby B stabilized fairly quickly. However, just before midnight on June 9, 2015, 28 hours after baby A died, her blood oxygen levels had dropped, and the nasal prongs that supplied additional oxygen to the baby were no longer connected to her. Around 12.30 a.m., an alarm from the baby's monitor went off.

Baby B was observed to be limp and blue, and she was not breathing. Once the hospital alarms started sounding, doctors rushed in and Baby B was resuscitated and recovered quickly. Just like after Baby A died, even though Baby B did recover and lived, Lucy continued to search the mother's Facebook afterward.

During the trial, prosecutor Johnson informed the court that fortunately, baby B appears not to have sustained any lasting harm. An expert pediatrician who examined the case stated that the baby had likely been subjected to some form of sabotage, possibly an air injection. The prosecutor pointed out to the jurors just how peculiar this situation was for the both of them.

Both twins were born prematurely, but were initially in relatively good health, saying no one expected them to face grave problems, yet both of them experienced unusual symptoms within a short time frame of one another. On June 11, 2015, three days after Baby A's death,

Lucy messaged a manager of the neonatal unit offering to work more shifts, saying, "From a confidence point of view, I need to take an ITU baby soon." And that takes us to baby C. Baby C was a baby boy who had been born 10 weeks premature. He weighed only 1 pound 12 ounces, but he was initially in stable condition in the intensive care unit.

On the night of June 14th, Lucy was actually assigned to care for another baby who was in worse condition in a different room. However, when Baby C's primary nurse briefly stepped away, Baby C suddenly started to crash. Upon returning, the nurse found that Lucy was the only one present in the room. Baby C briefly recovered, but his vitals crashed again just 15 minutes later.

Once more, Lucy was found at the side of his cot. Despite emergency medical intervention, Baby C did not survive this time. Baby C died on June 14, 2015, after it was suspected that Lucy inserted air into his stomach through a nasal tube, causing him breathing difficulties. An independent pathologist reviewing the case determined that Baby C passed away due to compromised breathing, leading to cardiac arrest.

The method prosecutors believed used by Lucy would be fairly effective for committing murder in a neonatal unit because it doesn't really leave much of a trace. A senior nurse on duty with Lucy had to tell her repeatedly to come out of a room where Baby C's parents were spending their last moments with their son after she had been involved in failed attempts to revive him. Hours after Baby C's death, Lucy once again searched on Facebook for the child's parents.

According to the prosecution, the timing of this search indicated it was one of the first things that she did upon waking up after finishing her earlier shift around 8 a.m. However, what stood out the most in Baby C's death was that he showed intermittent signs of life for five hours after a medical crash team called off their desperate attempts to resuscitate him. And in a heartbreaking detail, a

Truly heartbreaking detail. During Lucy's trial, Dr. John Gibbs, a consultant pediatrician who had worked at the hospital for 20 years, said, and I quote, said,

Surprisingly, while we were waiting for the two ministers, there were some signs of life. I hadn't been expecting that. I was not sure initially what to do because we had stopped full resuscitation. We were only performing a token resuscitation to allow him to be christened. I'm not sure why his breathing, occasional gasps, and his heartbeats restarted.

It was five hours later when finally no heartbeat was heard and there were no further gasping responses. By then, Dr. Gibbs had returned home, but a colleague in the unit called him to tell him that Baby C was still showing breathing efforts. Dr. Gibbs said that he did not want to give the impression that he was blaming the parents for their decision to have the resuscitation continue while the two ministers made their way to the hospital.

He said, and I quote, "I'm not blaming them. It's not their fault. The fault is that his heart and breathing started again and that should not happen. I can't think of any natural disease process that would allow the heart to restart later on when you've not been able to restart it with resuscitation."

That suggests that whatever catastrophic event caused his death was reversing. I don't understand that from a natural disease process. Dr. Gibbs expressed to the jury that the infant showed occasional signs of life, leading the medical team to provide him with palliative care due to the extensive brain damage he had suffered.

Saying, it's very difficult to know what a 30-weeker feels. We don't know if he was feeling distressed, but we knew he had no nutrition and by then would be dehydrated. It was therefore appropriate to give him morphine to relieve any distress.

An unnamed nurse referred to as Nurse B for confidentiality mentioned that a fellow colleague, Melanie Taylor, was assigned to provide the family with a memory box that includes the baby's handprints, footprints, and a lock of hair. However, Melanie only partly completed this task. Unexpectedly, Lucy took it upon herself to prepare the memory box for baby C.

Nurse B detailed her interactions with Lucy that night, saying, "When baby C was with his family in the family room, I redirected all staff who had been in nursery 1 to other babies. I redirected Lucy to N3 because I had concerns about that infant. Yet Lucy visited the family room multiple times, prompting me to remind her to stay away and to let Melanie handle it."

Baby C's father wrote about his experience with Lucy on the night that the baby died, stating that as they were with their child, Lucy entered the room with a ventilated basket and abruptly said, "You've said your goodbyes. Do you want me to put him in here?" This comment shocked the family, and he said, "My wife responded, 'He's not dead yet.' He said they were taken aback by such insensitivity."

Today's episode of Serialistly is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Now, most of you listening right now are probably multitasking. Yes, I know you are. While you're listening to me talk, you're probably also driving, cleaning, exercising, or maybe even grocery shopping. But if you are not in some kind of moving vehicle, there is something else you can be doing right now, getting an auto quote from Progressive Insurance.

It's easy and you could save money by doing it right from your phone. Drivers who save by switching to Progressive save nearly $750 on average. And auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts. Discounts for having multiple vehicles on your policy, being a homeowner, and more. So just like your favorite podcast, Progressive will be with you 24-7, 365 days a year, so you're protected no matter what.

An official message from Medicare.

5.

Five days after Baby A's murder and the day before Baby C was killed, Lucy and a colleague sent text messages to each other where Lucy was complaining that their manager was forcing Lucy to take a break after Baby A's death. Lucy said when she worked at Liverpool Women's Hospital, she found she needed to go straight back and care for another baby.

Otherwise, the image of the one you lost never goes away." The colleague said, "I agree with her. I don't think it'll help. You need a break from full on ITU. It sounds very odd and I would be complete opposite."

Lucy says, "Forget I said anything. I'll be fine. It's part of the job. Just don't feel like there is much team spirit tonight." The conversation continues into the next day when Lucy is at work until 11:09 p.m. when Lucy texted, "Sleep well." Lucy continued the text conversation after baby C died to the same colleague.

Lucy texted, "Sorry if I was off, just wasn't a great start to the shift. But sadly, it got worse. I was struggling to accept what happened to baby A. Now, we've lost baby C overnight and it's all a bit much." The colleague responded, "Hoping you're going to be okay. This isn't like you. Sending you the biggest hugs."

To which Lucy replied, "I just keep seeing them both. No one should have to see and do the things we do. It's heartbreaking. But it's not about me. We learn to deal with it. Thank you." Now let's move into Baby D. Unlike the other babies, Baby D, a baby girl, was not born prematurely and was actually not supposed to be in the neonatal unit at Countess of Chester Hospital.

She ended up there due to a mistake on the hospital's part after she was initially born with a suspected infection when she became a limp and lost her color shortly after her C-section birth. After her mother's, water had broken early. Well, because of this mistake, baby D responded well to treatments and obviously was getting better very quickly until she wasn't anymore.

Suddenly, her condition took a turn for the worse, and she collapsed three times in the overnight hours on June 21st and into June 22nd. During her second collapse, the baby girl was visibly distressed and crying. Despite medical efforts, she could not be revived after her monitor alarm went off during her third collapse. She also had a skin discoloration and a rash that appeared out of nowhere, just like baby A had.

Baby D died on June 22, 2015, after it suspected that Lucy injected air into her bloodstream. During the trial, the BBC reported that prosecutors showed evidence that Lucy sent many messages to friends in the wake of Baby D's death, and the preceding deaths and collapses in which she suggested they could all clearly be explained as natural causes.

Lucy later told police she could not explain why she had searched on Facebook for Baby D's parents in the aftermath of her death. Because you know her go-to thing was searching for these babies' families. It is sick, deranged, and twisted.

She was also asked about another message in which she had referred to an element of fate being involved in the death. Later on that day, Lucy sent more text messages to that same colleague as earlier, saying, Guess it's how it's meant to be.

She then says, "I think there's an element of fate involved. There is a reason for everything." Now this text message. A lot of times when we're talking about why someone did something, you just can't know and it's common to feel like, "Well, that's weird because I wouldn't have done that." But then you're usually reminded that everybody responds to situations differently and you can never know exactly what someone was going through in that moment.

Well, respectfully, I completely disagree in this instance. I mean, I don't see any other reason to say that unless you are trying to get the other person to give you some sort of acknowledgement that they believe it's not your fault and that there is in fact a reason for everything. Or if you're trying to plant the idea into somebody else's head. And I say that because it's not like Lucy looked back on this five years later and had some profound thought.

This is the same day that Baby D died and the third death of a newborn in two weeks. I think I can speak for everyone when I say that nobody thinks that there must be an element of fate involved here. During the trial, Prosecutor Johnson said, and I quote, "...we say tragically for Baby D, her bad luck or fate was the fact that Lucy Letby was working in the neonatal unit that night."

There were more text messages between Lucy and another colleague after this, too. This time she says, "What I've seen has really hit me," but she brushes off the suggestion that she should go and see a counselor. Lucy says, "I can't talk about it now. I can't stop crying. I just need to get it out of my system."

Then on June 30th, 2015, another nurse text messaged Lucy saying this, There's something odd about that night and the other three that went so suddenly. Lucy responds, Well, baby C was tiny, obviously compromised in utero. Baby D septic. It's baby A that I can't get my head around.

July 2, 2015 was the first warning. Dr. Stephen Breyere, the head consultant on the neonatal unit, carried out a review of the three deaths in June of 2015. Allison Kelly, the director of nursing and deputy chief executive, was told that Lucy was the only nurse on shift for each of the deaths. Despite receiving this information, though, Lucy wasn't questioned and just continued work as usual.

That takes us to Baby E. Baby E, a twin boy, was originally supposed to be born at the Liverpool Women's Centre, but it was full, so the birth took place at the Countess of Chester Hospital instead. During the trial, the prosecutor, Mr Johnson, described a visit by Baby E's mother to the neonatal unit. Upon her arrival, the mother found her son visibly distressed and also bleeding from the mouth.

When Baby E's mother found her child in distress, Lucy attempted to calm her down and insisted that the baby was okay. The mother recalled that Lucy said another doctor would be in the unit soon to look into Baby E's condition and encouraged his mother to leave the unit, saying, "Trust me, I'm a nurse."

Basically saying that this baby's mother was essentially dismissed by Lucy when she said, trust me, I'm a nurse. Later that evening, baby E experienced a severe loss of blood. Another doctor saw baby E that night and said he had never seen such extensive bleeding in a baby of that size. Unfortunately, baby E was never able to recover and he passed away on August 4th, 2015.

In retrospect, Baby E's mother believes that when she first walked into the neonatal unit, she may have inadvertently interrupted Lucy while she was actually attacking Baby E. Although, of course, the mother wasn't aware of it at the time.

Medical examiners agree, saying that it's likely that Lucy attacked him and that he died due to air being injected into his bloodstream and that his cause of death was suffering a fatal bleed believed to be the result of Lucy interfering with his nasogastric tube.

Following his death, the evidence presented at trial showed that Lucy intentionally created deceptive nursing notes that were false, misleading, and designed to cover her tracks.

Lucy's text messages after Baby E's death were also shown to the jury. This thread started when a nurse messaged Lucy and asked her about what happened. "Lucy, news travels fast. Who told you?" "Lucy, yeah, I had them both. Was horrible." "Nurse, I just really feel for his parents, but for you too. You've had some really tough times recently."

"Lucy, not a lot I can do really. He had a massive hemorrhage, could have happened to any baby." And she didn't stop there. Yet again, Lucy seemed to display an unusual interest in Baby E's family.

The prosecution said that she conducted social media searches on the family just two days after the child's death and continued to do so multiple times in the subsequent months, even on Christmas Day. So that takes us to August 5th, 2015 and Baby F.

Baby F, the twin brother of Baby E, all of a sudden became very sick less than 24 hours after his brother was murdered. The nurse assigned to Baby F was none other than Lucy.

According to the prosecution, this was the first instance where Lucy allegedly used insulin as a poison. Baby F, who had been prescribed a TPN, which is a specific type of nutrition bag, experienced a sudden decline in his blood sugar levels along with an elevated heart rate.

A blood sample later confirmed extremely high insulin levels and very low C-peptide levels, and this was proof that he had been injected with insulin. So how would that happen? Well, Mr. Johnson, the prosecutor, noted that no other baby in the neonatal unit was prescribed insulin, ruling out the possibility of an accidental medication mix-up.

Instead, investigators believed that Lucy messed with the TPN bag by injecting insulin into it before it was given to baby F.

They came to this conclusion based on the records of who was in the room and who hung up the TPN bag. The prosecutor told the jury, and I quote, it can't have been an accident. And the only credible candidate for this act was the same individual present during all of the mysterious collapses and deaths in the unit.

implying again that all of these deaths were at the hands of Nurse Lucy. Four days later, after attempting to kill Baby F, Lucy texted another colleague. "Lucy, I said goodbye to Baby F's parents as Baby F might go tomorrow. They both cried and hugged me, saying they will never be able to thank me for the love and care that I gave to Baby F and for the precious memories I've given them. It's heartbreaking. Nurse,

It is heartbreaking, but you've done your job to the highest standard with compassion and professionalism. Lucy, I just feel sad that they are thanking me when they have lost him and for something that any of us would have done, but it's really nice to know that I got it right for them. That's all I want. Now guys, I know that this has been heavy and unfortunately it just gets worse. So let's take a quick breather together while we take a second to hear from another sponsor of today's episode.

Today's episode of Serialistly is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Now, most of you listening right now are probably multitasking. Yes, I know you are. While you're listening to me talk, you're probably also driving, cleaning, exercising, or maybe even grocery shopping. But if you are not in some kind of moving vehicle, there is something else you can be doing right now, getting an auto quote from Progressive Insurance.

It's easy and you could save money by doing it right from your phone. Drivers who save by switching to Progressive save nearly $750 on average. And auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts. Discounts for having multiple vehicles on your policy, being a homeowner, and more. So just like your favorite podcast, Progressive will be with you 24-7, 365 days a year, so you're protected no matter what.

An official message from Medicare.

A new law is helping me save more money on prescription drug costs. Maybe you can save too. With Medicare's Extra Help program, my premium is zero and my out-of-pocket costs are low. Who should apply? Single people making less than $23,000 a year or married couples who make less than $31,000 a year. Even if you don't think you qualify, it pays to find out. Go to ssa.gov slash extra help. Paid for by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Alright guys, so now we're moving over to September 7th, 2015 and September 21st, 2015. And this is Baby G. Lucy's next victim was Baby G, who according to the prosecution, Lucy intentionally tried to kill twice. First on September 7th, and then again on September 21st in 2015.

Baby G was born at a different hospital, not Lucy's. Baby G was born extremely prematurely and initially weighed only one pound, two ounces. She eventually was transferred to the Countess of Chester's neonatal unit in mid-August after she was making significant progress. And after some time there, Baby G was doing very well and approaching her 100th day of life.

To celebrate her reaching the 100-day mark, nurses even decorated with banners and made a cake. However, the prosecution said that Lucy deliberately tried to harm Baby G after the 100-day celebration on September 7th. They believe that Lucy purposely overfed Baby G through a tube and possibly injected air into her as well. As a result, Baby G vomited violently and stopped breathing.

She later recovered and was transferred back to her birth hospital because now doctors were concerned that maybe Baby G wasn't actually making the progress that they thought, and maybe she was regressing.

So she goes back to that hospital, gets better, but still needs to be under intensive care. So she is then again transferred back to Countess of Chester Hospital. Then on September 21st, she experienced similar symptoms, projectile vomiting and stopped breathing. Of course, after being fed by Lucy. This poor little baby girl was so strong and fought so hard for her life.

However, afterward, she had to be connected to monitors that would track her oxygen and her heart rate levels. Luckily, Baby G is still alive to this day, but the prosecution says that as a result of these incidents, Baby G has been left severely disabled.

Now, at this time, the hospital staff was starting to talk. I don't know if anyone was even able to comprehend the exact level of what Lucy had done, but there were certainly suspicions and rumors beginning to circulate. I mean, how many coincidences can you have before you start to look around and wonder if there is another factor here?

Five days later, on September 26th, Lucy responded to a manager who had texted her a supportive message and brought up the recent criticism that Lucy had been receiving. "Lucy, that's really nice to hear as I gather you are aware of some of the not so positive comments that have been made recently regarding my role which I have found quite upsetting. Our job is a pleasure to do and just hope I do the best for the babies and their families."

Prosecutor Nick Johnson stated that these were not accidental or random incidents, but were deliberate acts by Lucy, aiming to make them appear as chance events. He also said that Lucy denied having any memory of searching for Baby G's parents on Facebook, including a search on September 21st.

the same date that the prosecution claims she had made that second attempt to murder the baby. And less than a month later, on October 13, 2015, we are introduced to Baby I. According to the prosecution, Baby I was another unfortunate victim, and Lucy allegedly attempted to take her life four times before ultimately succeeding.

She was accused of injecting air into baby I stomach through a tube. This initial attempt came shortly after another alleged incident involving baby H.

Now, in a second episode, a colleague working the night shift told investigators that she remembered a moment when Lucy stood in the doorway of a dimly lit room in the neonatal unit and commented that baby eye looked pale. When she turned on the light, the nurse found the baby, barely alive and not breathing. And Lucy was just standing there in the corner, not doing anything.

The next morning, Lucy sent text messages to another nurse that was going to take care of baby I next and said that baby I deteriorated a lot this morning and had to be resuscitated.

When Lucy was getting ready to go to her next shift, she texted the shift leader nurse and asked her if she could take care of baby I when she came in. Now at first, the shift leader agreed and Lucy was going to be the overnight nurse. But then she messaged Lucy a little bit later and said, "Never mind." So then Lucy asked if there was a problem and the shift leader just responded, "Was just asked to relocate so no one has her for more than one night at a time."

Baby I recovered, but was still in the neonatal unit for a little bit longer. Then on October 23rd, something happened. Her vital signs started crashing. Luckily, she was able to be revived, though. However, less than an hour later, her monitor alarm went off. A colleague found Lucy standing next to Baby I's incubator.

The other nurse wanted to take action because she could tell that something was wrong. The baby was screaming, and here you have Lucy just standing there doing nothing. But somehow Lucy told this nurse that she was fine and that she could handle it. But whenever baby eyes started crashing again, this time she was not able to be resuscitated.

During Lucy's trial, an expert in pediatric care reviewed Baby I's medical records and concluded that her condition deteriorated due to the intentional injection of a large volume of air into her stomach via tube. The expert also believed that the air was deliberately injected into her bloodstream on the last occasion, causing her to scream and then collapse. Coincidentally, Baby I crashed while Lucy was on duty.

So a few days later, on October 26, 2015, is when the second warning happened. According to The Guardian, Dr. Brerrie becomes increasingly concerned following the death of child I. Another staff review finds Letbe was present at more unusual deaths. Another consultant, Dr. Ravi Jayaram, alerts management to their concerns but is told not to make a fuss.

So a few months pass, and then on February 8, 2016, is a third warning. A review ordered by the doctor finds several common links in nine unusual deaths since June of 2015. Lucy's connection to the mortalities is mentioned at a meeting that was called to discuss the report, which was sent to the medical director, Ian Harvey.

The doctor requests an urgent meeting with executives, but no meeting takes place until May of 2016, the court is told. And that takes us to Baby L. Baby L, a twin boy, was the target of an alleged murder attempt on April 9, 2016. The circumstances resembled those of the previous cases involving twins Baby E and Baby F through tampering with insulin in the bags that were going to be given to the babies.

While on the day shift, Lucy was accused of giving baby L an unauthorized dosage of insulin. The prosecution said that after failing to fatally poison baby F, Lucy had upped the insulin dosage that was given to baby L. When questioned, Lucy denied responsibility, suggesting that the insulin must have been in one of the bags being administered to the child.

She agreed that the insulin couldn't have been administered accidentally, but she denied her involvement. And that takes us to her next victim, Baby M. Baby M, who is the twin brother of Baby L. On November 9th, 2016, as that attack on Baby L was in progress, Lucy shifted her focus to Baby M, and she injected air into his circulatory system.

This caused baby M to come close to death as his heart rate and breathing rate crashed. However, he luckily improved during the night shift that followed and survived. Dr. Breyer raised more concerns about Lucy after an assurance document seen by The Guardian pretty much laid out why Lucy was not believed to be the cause of the unusual deaths.

It suggests other NHS services may be to blame for the spike in deaths and that, and I quote, there is no evidence whatsoever against Lucy Letby other than coincidence. So Dr. Briere is upset because he feels like nobody is listening to him. And of course, if nothing is being done, another victim comes into focus.

And that's Baby N. Baby N, a baby boy who was born weighing 3.6 pounds and was described as having an excellent clinical condition, although he did have a mild blood disorder.

At 1:05 a.m., just a day after he was born, baby N experienced a sudden and life-threatening drop in his blood oxygen levels. Unusually for a baby of his size and premature status, he was observed crying and screaming. Emergency assistance from medical professionals was provided and the child subsequently recovered.

Independent medical experts reviewed that case and stated that the sudden deterioration in Baby N's condition was consistent with some form of inflicted injury, or the possibility that he had received an injection of air. The prosecution believes that Lucy attempted to murder Baby N, thinking that maybe since he had a mild blood disorder that she wouldn't be detected, and it would provide her, essentially, with a cover for her attack.

This was based on the assumption that if the baby experienced any bleeding, nobody would think that it had anything to do with her. And that takes us to baby O and baby P.

Lucy returned to work after going on a vacation with friends to Ibiza, right before she came into contact with Baby O and Baby P. Baby O was a baby boy triplet and a brother of Baby P. He was reportedly in good condition and stable until the afternoon of June 23, 2016. On that day, Baby O experienced a remarkable deterioration in his condition and passed away.

An initial postmortem examination found unclotted blood in the baby's body due to a liver injury. At the time, the coroner certified the death as resulting from natural causes and attributed it to an intra-abdominal bleeding. However, an independent pathologist later reviewed the case and disagreed with the initial findings. This expert concluded that the liver injury wasn't caused by chest compressions during resuscitation attempts.

Instead, the pathologist suggested that the most likely cause of the liver injury was impact type of trauma. Furthermore, the independent expert concluded that Baby O had received excessive amounts of air, both into his bloodstream and through a tube. In the case of Baby P, the tragedy deepens with him being a triplet and the brother of Baby O, who had already been murdered by Lucy at this point.

Baby P experienced an acute deterioration in his condition just before plans were made to move him to another hospital for further care. A doctor was reportedly optimistic about the baby's chances for recovery until Lucy made a remark along the lines of, "He's not leaving alive here, is he?" Shortly after this comment, Baby P collapsed and subsequently died.

Initially, a coroner recorded the cause of death as prematurity. However, independent experts later reviewed the case and offered a different explanation. These experts proposed that the most likely cause of Baby P's death was air being intentionally injected into his stomach, which would have compromised his ability to breathe.

Now, throughout this time period, where Lucy essentially went on a killing spree of newborns, there were so many incidents where after the deaths happened, the parents of the victim babies later remembered how uncomfortable they felt around Lucy right after their baby had just died. Many parents described instances where you'd think a nurse would have a little more couth and bedside manner to a grieving family that just lost an infant, but no.

Lucy would almost hover around them to the point where they were looking around the room wondering why she wasn't getting the hint that they wanted to be alone with their baby for the very last time before letting their baby go forever.

They didn't need a nurse in there staring at them or almost in a weird way pressing them for time, as if they needed to hurry with those last moments. Sometimes she would also make weird comments like "Oh, I remember when I first gave him a bath" and then smile at them, like a complete and utter freaking psycho. And remember, there was that one incident specifically when Lucy actually said "Okay, you've said your goodbyes, would you like me to take him?"

I mean, I can't even put into words right now the amount of rage that would overcome my body if I was in that situation, where I wanted a little bit of privacy to grieve. I'd probably actually say something like, please leave. But to think about what I would do if I was feeling rushed in that moment, I can't even tell you what I would do. The fucking nerve of this woman and this creepy, stalkerish obsession with the families after

looking them up on Facebook on Christmas, writing them sympathy cards, and knowing damn well that she had done this to their child. She had murdered them. It is absolutely deranged. After the deaths of Baby O and Baby P, Dr. Breyre called one of Lucy's higher-ups at the hospital and said that Lucy needed to be removed from the unit.

However, the person on the other end of the phone, Karen Rees, even with everything, insisted that Lucy was safe to work and was happy to take responsibility if anything happened to other babies when Lucy was involved. Uh, yeah, okay, sure, Karen. But luckily, Lucy was removed from her duties shortly after that. And we are going to talk about her departure in just a moment after we hear from another sponsor in today's episode.

Today's episode of Serialistly is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Now, most of you listening right now are probably multitasking. Yes, I know you are. While you're listening to me talk, you're probably also driving, cleaning, exercising, or maybe even grocery shopping. But if you are not in some kind of moving vehicle, there is something else you can be doing right now, getting an auto quote from Progressive Insurance.

It's easy and you could save money by doing it right from your phone. Drivers who save by switching to Progressive save nearly $750 on average. And auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts. Discounts for having multiple vehicles on your policy, being a homeowner, and more. So just like your favorite podcast, Progressive will be with you 24-7, 365 days a year, so you're protected no matter what.

Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates. National average 12-month savings of $744 by new customers surveyed who saved with Progressive between June 2022 and May 2023. Potential savings will vary. Discounts not available in all states and situations. An official message from Medicare.

A new law is helping me save more money on prescription drug costs. Maybe you can save too. With Medicare's Extra Help program, my premium is zero and my out-of-pocket costs are low. Who should apply? Single people making less than $23,000 a year or married couples who make less than $31,000 a year. Even if you don't think you qualify, it pays to find out. Go to ssa.gov slash extra help. Paid for by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Alright, so after Lucy's departure from the hospital, a formal investigation finally commenced into the causes of deaths of the babies. But why now? Why not at the time of the warnings? All of those times we just went through. Why?

You know why? Funding. Hospitals in the UK rely on funding from the NHS. And do you know what would look really, really bad? If a bunch of babies were dying for no reason and they had to conduct a formal investigation, but the people in charge, senior executives who made the decision to look the other direction and not follow up on the legitimate concerns by other doctors, had no idea what they were actually covering up. Instead, they coddled Lucy.

The hospital board allowed her to keep working. They comforted her. Some doctors were even forced to write apology emails to Lucy. They told her it wasn't her fault, and they apologized for causing so much stress in her life. But now, the board at Countess of Chester Hospital was about to be confronted with a much darker truth than they could have ever predicted.

One that to me and many others appears as nothing more than complete and utter negligence that resulted in the deaths of babies that could have been saved had they done their jobs in the first place. And I truly hope that whoever spearheaded this campaign to not make a fuss and keep things quiet gets their asses handed to them on a silver platter.

Once getting more into their investigation, the hospital realized that to conduct this investigation, they needed outside help. But that effort was met with significant pushback. And I get it. It would look pretty bad on the whole hospital to let this go on for so long without doing anything about it. However, as medical professionals, they have a duty to their patients.

And so finally, someway, somehow, in May of 2018, the Chester Police Department began officially investigating the deaths of the eight infants that had crashed out of nowhere, the seven other deaths, and six occasions where infants suddenly collapsed but were later resuscitated. Lucy was arrested just two months later in July. Hello, Lucy is this? Hello, my name is from Chester Police. Okay, step into sevens. Oh, yes? Yeah, thank you.

They told me there would be a lot more deaths and I think that somebody was there for a lot of them.

Did you have any concerns that there was a rise in the mortality rate? Yes. Okay, so tell me about that. What concerns did you have? I think we don't just notice as a team in general and this and stuff that this was a rise compared to previous years. But Lucy was let go. This happened once again until finally in November of 2020 when she was charged with murdering seven babies and attempting to kill another 10.

Now, I want to go back to when all of this news first was coming out, when the news of Lucy's arrests and the crimes that she was accused of were making the headlines. And this is where I initially struggled to understand this case. First of all, I did not realize just how close all of these incidents took place with one another. And when I was researching this and putting it all together, it's shocking at how blatant her actions became. I'm

I mean, to go after the sibling of a baby that you just killed, literally moments later? I'm almost not sure why she didn't think anybody wouldn't begin to notice the pattern here. Not that we can ever understand the minds of criminals, but seriously, why would a nurse do this? Why would anyone do this?

Was she doing it for some sick way to get attention or sympathy? Was she doing this in hopes that when an infant crashed and doctors were alerted, maybe the married doctor that she had a crush on would have to rush into the hospital, into the room, and maybe she didn't mean for the babies to actually die? And we'll get to more of that in a little bit here. Or is she just truly evil? I mean, how could anyone even be involved in that many deaths in general and not want to take a break?

But instead, Lucy seems to have hit the gas pedal, like she was on a rampage.

You would think at some point if she felt the heat coming on or that eyes were on her, she would maybe take a break or maybe pause. But no. This aspect of this case just felt so unbelievable to me. And when I first heard about this story before I knew of all of the incidents, the details, the dates, the circumstances, I legitimately thought, no way. These are serious, heinous charges and egregious crimes that she's being charged with. This has to be a witch hunt. Maybe this is a wrongful death suit gone wrong. I don't know exactly what I thought.

but in no way did I expect it to be like this. And not only did she not take a break and hit the pedal to the metal, she told people, colleagues, in written digital footprint, in order to move past this, I need to get back to work. I need to throw myself back into working with another baby. She was begging to continue her rampage, in my opinion.

Without the medical testimony and proof, what was found though in post-mortem in the autopsies, I would have a hard time believing that someone with no obvious warning signs, no deep childhood trauma that we are aware of, just none of the normal signs that you would expect to see, and a nurse of all people, a neonatal unit, would be capable of that. So what was Lucy's life like on the outside of the hospital? What caused this? What made her do this? What drove her to do this?

Well, her defense would have you believe that she was just someone who only had work, and that was the one thing that she had since she didn't have a family of her own yet and wasn't married, and that all of this is just one giant coincidence. Additionally, she blames the deaths and the collapses as being a result of serial failures in care in the unit, and that she was the victim of a system that wanted to apportion blame when it failed.

and also staffing levels. Yet since Lucy left the hospital, the rate of infant deaths is suddenly back to normal. Imagine that. Yet it's all a coincidence, right? When law enforcement finally arrested Lucy in July of 2018, they arrested her at the home that she bought in May of 2016 for 179,000 pounds, at the same time that she was carrying out her secret killing spree at the Countess of Chester Hospital.

Her parents' home and her office were also searched, and what they found was pretty damning in my opinion, because I just can't imagine another reason that some of this stuff would have been found in an innocent person's house. So let's get into that.

According to multiple reports, hearts were doodled on the form along with random words: Tigger, Smudge, Bergeric, and Help Me. Tigger and Smudge were later revealed to be the names of rescue cats that Lucy owned. Sentences included: "I trusted you with everything and loved you. I really can't do this anymore. I just want life to be as it was. I want to be happy in the job that I loved. I really don't belong anywhere.

I'm a problem for those who don't know me, and it would be much easier for everyone if I just went away." A search of the garage at the property revealed another handwritten note in a black bin bag. Phrases on that note included "killing me softly," "brokenhearted," and "no one will ever know what happened or why." Six pages of medical notes of children unrelated to the trial were found at her parents' home on that same date.

A total of 257 handover sheets were recovered during searches in the investigation, of which 21 of them included the names of babies in the indictment. Now guys, I'm going to talk to you about some post-it notes that are also unnerving and unsettling that were found, but before I get into that, we are going to take one last break to hear from the final sponsor of today's video. And again, I appreciate you guys understanding that these sponsors are essential to keeping this podcast free.

So let's hear from them and then we will come back and we will talk about all these post-it notes and how everything in Lucy's life finally unraveled.

Today's episode of Serialistly is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Now, most of you listening right now are probably multitasking. Yes, I know you are. While you're listening to me talk, you're probably also driving, cleaning, exercising, or maybe even grocery shopping. But if you are not in some kind of moving vehicle, there is something else you can be doing right now, getting an auto quote from Progressive Insurance.

It's easy and you could save money by doing it right from your phone. Drivers who save by switching to Progressive save nearly $750 on average. And auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts. Discounts for having multiple vehicles on your policy, being a homeowner, and more. So just like your favorite podcast, Progressive will be with you 24-7, 365 days a year, so you're protected no matter what.

Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates. National average 12-month savings of $744 by new customers surveyed who saved with Progressive between June 2022 and May 2023. Potential savings will vary. Discounts not available in all states and situations. An official message from Medicare.

A new law is helping me save more money on prescription drug costs. Maybe you can save too. With Medicare's Extra Help program, my premium is zero and my out-of-pocket costs are low. Who should apply? Single people making less than $23,000 a year or married couples who make less than $31,000 a year. Even if you don't think you qualify, it pays to find out. Go to ssa.gov slash extra help. Paid for by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Alright, so I took a closer look at the post-it notes that were found in her diary from 2016. And the handwriting is very, very hard to read, but I tried to look at it as much as I could to see what it says. "I can't do this anymore. Today is your birthday, but you aren't. I'm sorry that you couldn't have a chance at life. Hate my life. Help." In bold letters.

The word "hate" in a circle: "There are no words. I'm an awful person. I can't breathe. I can't focus every day for me not to kill myself right now. Overwhelming fear and panic. I haven't done anything wrong. I'll never children or marry. I'll never know what it's like to have a family. Slander. Discrimination. All getting too much. Hate myself. Taking over my life." So much for what this has, which I'm not sure if that's exactly what it says.

I feel very alone and scared. What does the future hold? How can I get through it? How will things ever be like they were? I don't deserve to live. I killed them on purpose because I'm not good enough. I did this. Why me? Panic, fear, lost. I am evil. I did this.

Alright, now in my opinion, guys, those notes are a clear indication and clear evidence of the ramblings of a psychopath, in my opinion. It seems like something a guilty person would write. Now, while the contents of what was found in her home was being presented in court, Lucy cried as photographs of her home appeared on the screen in court. On the bedroom walls, there were two framed pictures containing the slogans, shine like a diamond and leave sparkles wherever you go.

Two teddy bears were positioned on an unmade double bed, while among items on the floor were a red suitcase, a large burgundy handbag, and a small black handbag. Prosecutor Philip Astaberry said three handwritten notes were recovered by the police from one of the handbags. The notes contained declarations of love for a doctor colleague, whose name we don't know, and written next to his name was, I loved you and my best friend.

Officers also found a Morrisons shopping bag from the bedroom, which contained 31 handover sheets, a blood gas reading for a child she allegedly attacked, and a paper towel containing handwritten resuscitation notes. Again, the items that a freaking psychopath would keep. As part of Lucy's defense, she testified. She spoke about how she always wanted to work with kids, and then said that the

that the accusations that they were in court for was revolting. Uh, no, Lucy, you are revolting. She may have wanted to work with kids, but somewhere along the line, she became absolutely corrupted. Or maybe she was always corrupted. I'll let you come to your own conclusions on that. Despite the heaviness that weighed in the courtroom throughout the trial, Lucy, for the most part, didn't seem very affected.

A BBC reporter, Judith Moritz, was there in court during the trial, and she wrote, and I quote, "I found it interesting that while the nurse remained composed throughout months of evidence relating to the terrible suffering of tiny babies, her first sign of emotion seemed to be born out of pangs of longing for this doctor. There were only a handful of other occasions when tears came to the surface.

during evidence about being taken off nursing duty, when excerpts of her post-arrest interview were read out, and when it was mentioned that she had suicidal thoughts.

Much later, when lead prosecutor Nick Johnson KC got to his feet to start cross-examining Lucy, his first question is one that I'd been wondering too. Is there any reason that you'd cry when you talk about yourself, but you don't cry when talking about these dead and seriously injured children? Well, in my opinion, Lucy clearly has no empathy.

No situational awareness or even an ounce of remorse for anything that happened to those babies, those families, her co-workers, and anyone else who was affected by this slew of what felt like never-ending tragedy. The only person that Lucy feels for is herself. It gives off narcissistic vibes to the absolute max. Now I'm going to be honest that I had my doubts about how this trial would end.

First off, there is no doubt in my mind that the jurors had to have been exhausted near the end. Not only had they basically given up their lives, but they had spent the last 10 months listening to every little heartbreaking detail about multiple babies who had died, the pain that their families endured, and the simple fact that all of it could have never happened if Lucy wasn't there. Just there wreaking havoc.

There is no doubt that it had to take an effect on the mental health of all 11 jurors. On multiple days, court either ended early or didn't go into session at all, which just further proves my point. The second reason I was worried is the fact that more than 300 witnesses had spoken throughout the trial.

So over the last 10 months, I have frequently looked at the case here and there, and just looking at a couple of the witnesses' testimonies gets very overwhelming. Keeping track of 300 witnesses and the stories of 17 babies, all who had been harmed and or murdered, seems nearly impossible. I was worried about it being just too much for the jury as a whole. Now, the third reason that I was worried was because I noticed the overall public opinion seemed very divided on this.

I wasn't sure that the jury wouldn't be completely divided as well.

But thankfully, the jury did their job to the absolute best of their ability. Lucy was found guilty in the murder of seven babies and the attempted murder of six others. Unfortunately though, the jury was hung on another six counts of attempted murder, and she ended up being acquitted in two counts of attempted murder. I am sure that for those families, there was a sense of relief, yet also a sense of frustration for those latter eight charges.

Almost like the saying, two feelings can coexist. According to the BBC, Lucy broke down in tears as the first set of guilty verdicts were read out by the jury's foreman on August 8th, after 76 hours of deliberations. She cried with her head bowed down as the second set were returned on August 11th.

Her mother sobbed loudly and was heard saying, this can't be right, you can't be serious, while the families of the babies cried and gasped. During sentencing, Lucy decided not to show up.

There is a law in Britain that doesn't force defendants to show up for sentencing. However, the judge still spoke as if she were in the room. Lucy Letby, on each of the seven offenses of murder and the seven offenses of attempted murder, I sentence you to imprisonment for life. Because the seriousness of your offenses is exceptionally high, I direct that the early release provisions do not apply.

The order of the court, therefore, is a whole life order on each and every offence, and you will spend the rest of your life in prison. The defendant, Lucy Lettby, has refused to attend court for this sentence hearing. Accordingly, I have to sentence her in her absence. I shall deliver the sentencing remarks as if she was present to hear them.

The methods you employed to carry out your murderous intent were only revealed by the later detailed investigation into the events of and surrounding the collapses and deaths of the babies, which commenced in 2018. There was premeditation, calculation and cunning in your actions. You specifically targeted twins and latterly triplets. Some babies were healthy,

Others had medical issues of which you were aware. On occasions, you cruelly and callously made inappropriate remarks to some of the grieving parents at the time of or in the immediate aftermath of a death. A piece of paper with dense writing on both sides setting out your thoughts and feelings was found in the first search of your home in 2018.

Amongst the phrases you wrote were, the world is better off without me, and I am evil. I did this. It is no part of my function to reach conclusions as to the underlying reason or reasons for your actions, nor could I, for they are known only to you. This was a cruel decision.

calculated and cynical campaign of child murder involving the smallest and most vulnerable of children knowing that your actions were causing significant physical suffering and would cause untold mental suffering. You removed and retained confidential records of events relating to your crimes and checked up on bereaved parents.

There was a deep malevolence bordering on sadism in your actions. Lucy was sentenced to life in prison or what is referred to as a whole life order. In the UK, those are very rare. And I read that Lucy is actually only ever the fourth woman to ever be given a whole life order.

Now, as if we didn't already know how bad this whole case actually is, the fact that she is the fourth woman to ever get that just drives the point home even further. After Lucy did not attend her sentencing, the public was absolutely outraged. How could she continue to disrespect the victims again?

According to the reports, the Justice Secretary Alex Chalk says that the government wants to change the law to compel offenders to attend, saying that Lucy Letby is not just a murderer, but a coward, whose failure to face her victims' families, refusing to hear their impact statements, and society condemn her is the final insult, saying, "...we are looking to change the law so that offenders can be compelled to attend sentencing hearings."

And I really think that they should force offenders to be present for their own sentences. I'm not sure that Lucy would have necessarily cared about the sentence being handed to her, but I do think that she should have to be forced to sit there and listen to the judge and the impact statements.

Since the sentencing, people all around the world are still trying to understand the motive behind harming so many innocent babies. Lucy doesn't have a complicated, trauma-filled background like most people who repeatedly kill do. In fact, a few of Lucy's close friends have spoken to the media about how they feel that she is innocent, and they say that there is absolutely no way that she could have done this.

Prior to all of the deaths at the hospital, she never gave off any signs of deriving pleasure from harming others. It has left people extremely puzzled. At one point in the trial, the prosecution mentioned the potential of her maybe enjoying the idea of playing a godlike role and bringing the babies back to life, almost as if it gave her a sense of pleasure to know that she was capable.

There are other people who think that maybe Lucy was just trying to get attention from the married doctor that people believe she had a crush on. Maybe she was trying to get him to come into work and into the rooms and initially didn't think a baby would die. But then again, obviously, that was not the case, and she continued to do so, so I don't know. But ultimately, I don't think anyone will ever know, unless she decides to finally fess up.

Dr. Jaaram, who once tried to raise concerns of Lucy's behavior, is now working on holding the hospital accountable. Lucy is no doubt responsible for these deaths, but had the hospital taken things more seriously, it likely wouldn't have gone to such drastic lengths. The doctor is advocating for the creation of a regulatory body to oversee NHS management and hold them accountable in cases of alleged wrongdoing.

Lucy Leppy once texted a mentor that she believed that there was an element of destiny involved and that everything happens for a reason. She did this after she murdered that third baby. Well, Lucy, by your account of everything happening for a reason, you will be spending your life in prison, living miserably due to the reason of being an absolute sadistic psycho who thought it was okay to take the lives of innocent babies.

I truly hope that Lucy's life is nothing but absolute misery and that every day she is intentionally reminded of why she is there and what a horrible person she is to have done the things that she did. And in a shocking twist in all of this, there are still a lot of people out there divided on whether this was intentional or whether...

Lucy truly is innocent. After recording this podcast, an update came out in this case. According to the BBC and many other news outlets, Lucy Lepi's legal team has filed an application for permission to appeal her convictions for murdering seven babies and attempting to kill another six.

Additionally, a hearing will be held on September 25th where the Crown Prosecution Service will decide whether to pursue a retrial for six outstanding counts of attempted murder that the jury could not reach a verdict on.

It'll be interesting to see how the appeal will go because as I mentioned earlier, there are a lot of people on both sides of this. I believe it's likely that some people may just have a hard time accepting the fact that someone could do this. And like we discussed earlier, that this seemingly normal baby nurse with no criminal history or any major alarming behavioral issues in the past could be capable of being so evil.

Also, it's possible that some people may have had a hard time accepting the conviction because even as the judge said at the end of her trial, it was a case in which the prosecution substantially but not wholly relied on circumstantial evidence.

As we all know, circumstantial evidence is sometimes better than direct evidence and can sometimes be more compelling, which I believe is the case here. But overall, I can see how some people may struggle to get past the beyond a reasonable doubt definition. Additionally, there are a few scientists and doctors around the world who do not agree with some of the medical testimony that was given at trial.

Now this doesn't really surprise me as you can usually find a doctor with a different opinion on almost anything pretty easily. I'm open to hearing credible alternative explanations of what happened but until then my opinion has not changed in the slightest. In this trial judge Mr. Justice James Goss told the jury which consisted of eight women and four men that they were the judges of the facts and any decisions should be based on evidence and not speculation.

Saying, and I quote,

He said it was the prosecution's case that Lucy deliberately harmed the babies intending to kill them, and that the defendant was the only member of nursing and clinical staff who was on duty each time that the collapses of all of the babies occurred and had associations with them at material times, either being the designated nurse or working on the unit.

Outlining the defense's case, Justice Goss said it was their view that there were possible causes for many of the collapses other than an intentional harmful act.

and the prosecution's expert evidence could not be relied on. At the end, he said, "...it is for the prosecution to prove the defendant's guilt of any offense by making you sure of her guilt. She has no burden of proving her innocence. If you are not sure she is guilty of any offense, your verdict should be not guilty. If you are sure of her guilt, your verdict should be guilty."

We know how the judge feels in this case regarding Lucy since he did not hold back his feelings at her sentencing when he said that the cruelty and calculation of Lucy's actions between June 2015 and June 2016 were truly horrific. Also saying, and I quote, "...you acted in a way that was completely contrary to the normal human instincts of nurturing and caring for babies, and in a gross breach of the trust that all citizens place in those who work in the medical and caring professions."

There was an undercurrent bordering on sadism in your actions. During the course of this trial, you have coldly denied any responsibility for your wrongdoing. You have no remorse. There are no mitigating factors. I also wanted to add that the judge said copies would be provided of his remarks and the personal statements of the victim's parents to Lucy in her cell.

I believe and agree with the jury that this was intentional, but where do you stand? Maybe I'll throw a poll up on here, but let me know in the comment section or in the Q&A section on Spotify, or leave it in your review at the end of this episode.

I appreciate you guys sticking with me today. I know that this was definitely a longer one than usual, so thanks for sticking through. I also know that the content was very difficult to get through, so I greatly appreciate you sticking through. I hope that this episode was helpful for you because I know that this case is so, so complex, very daunting, to be quite honest, to take on, and there have been so many questions out there about what really happened. How complex was this? Can somebody just break it down, explain it?

So I hope that I was able to do that for you and give you a little bit more clarity as to who Lucy was and what she did to these innocent victims and babies and families. So again, thank you for sticking with me through this episode.

All right, guys, don't forget, too, we had a ton of amazing sponsors on today's episode, and I have linked all of them for you in the show notes below. So check them out, grab those deals, and snag them while you can. All right, guys, thanks for tuning in. I also wanted to mention really quickly that we have updated Patreon officially. So I am so excited to announce that every single Friday, whether you sign up through Patreon or sign up on Apple Podcasts, you will get an ad-free bonus true crime episode.

every single friday there are also a lot of other perks we've added into patreon such as bonus video episodes throughout the month early access to a lot of my case videos that i publish on youtube a private group chat where we talk all day every day about all of the different ongoing cases there's so much over there so head over to patreon for that or if you're listening to the podcast of this you don't want patreon but you do want those bonus episodes that are going to be released ad free every friday you can do that through apple subscription other than that i will be back with you a bright and early

Thursday morning for Headline Highlights, where we break down everything that has gone down this week in the true crime world and new cases that have also emerged this week. So make sure to check back on Thursday for that. And as a reminder, Headline Highlights is a podcast exclusive because it is a shorter, bite-sized episode where I'm able to just quickly get you the audio of all of the Headline Highlights. So if you're watching the YouTube version of this, that is over on the podcast exclusively and does not get cross-posted to YouTube.

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